And hopefully you are all set for a happy new year. Sorry for the delay. You know what Christmas is like.
Hope you all got the presents you were looking for this Christmas. Amongst the presents Santa bought me are:
Football sweat bands
Egg poachers
Book on North Korea (That award winning one)
Chocs
Calender
Socks/Shirt
Simons cat book
Royksopp CD
Godfather Trilogy
Hat
Posh shower stuff
AND Bill Bailey tickets for the upcoming year. Love Bill Bailey. We have box seats, me and my dad. Should be a good show!
Amongst the gifts I bought were a comedy dvd for me Grandad, Jam and tea for my Grandma, Candle for mum, Book for sis and bath stuff for my dad. Isn't body shop amazing, if you are walking back defeated from anywhere having failed to get a good present of any sort, you can always pop in and buy something to make that tricky person smell nicer. Good times.
Going to get back to my book The Snowman by Jo Nesbo - highly recommend for a good thriller. Set in Norway and highly addictive. Last chapter I'm up to. Stopping me from focusing on languages but that's what new years resolutions are for!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Winter in London Part the Dos
Hoi Hoi,
Blog again soon, maybe xmas/boxing day(?) Off to see some friends in a pub for an xmas eve drink.
Hope everyone here is well and ready for christmas time. I've got my stuff all hidden and ready to wrap tomorrow. Me dad lost his wallet but I thought that would be too obvious a gift so have opted for something different, and expensive.
I am getting old, not only is this the first year where the tree and time of year means nothing almost spiritually significant to me, but I'm starting to wish I had made a proper list of needs for xmas in order to recoup the monetary value of the things I have bought in the most efficient way possible. Thats a bit evil isn't it?
Now I need to buckle down and get good at french and spanish double quick. Only a few weeks til they start again, and £160 extra for the tests! The cheek..
I leave you with a few of the best of my photos from central London whilst out xmas shopping, chat in a bit!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Good thing I don't work Mondays
Random mish-mash of blogging events here.
So when I manage to stumble across a rare photo I like of myself I enjoy it muchly, I figure you only live once so try and get as many good photos of yourself as possible in this brief existence right?
First I spend quite a bit of time worrying how I'm looking because its a bit hard trying to keep myself looking acceptable. To me, checking myself in the mirror before a night out is less making myself look good and more damage control. I don't really fancy myself as much of a looker.
So when I manage to stumble across a rare photo I like of myself I enjoy it muchly, I figure you only live once so try and get as many good photos of yourself as possible in this brief existence right?
Two photos I've managed to like for the first time in a while:
Won't be many more of these promise! Again, the way I see it my grand kids will get a good chuckle off these clearly narcissistic photos. But they'll also get to see me looking better then the many other photos taken on drunk nights out I wish hadn't survived. Life is short. Jump in. Look good. Jump out!
Other, mini-political blog statement - If 'out of service' trains cost the UK economy millions a day through lost sales, why doesn't the government install thousands of solar panels along railway/ outside underground tracks to heat the snow calling all of the disruption? Granted it will take millions and a lot time to complete but in the long term we might recuperate the losses in a few days of an improved economy!
In Russia, and many other stereotypically cold places you think of when trying to remember stereotypically cold places, public transport runs throughout bad snow. Airports are open consistently, how comes ours close? - Surely we should be taking much needed tips from experienced countries. as to how to deal with snow effectively. I assume snowy countries have brilliant ways of keeping airports open. Under-runway heaters to melt and snow/ice? We should be looking into this!
Speak to you soon blog readers.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Our Snow Witch
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
When life gives you crippling amounts of snow, grab a dad and make a snow witch.
Here are some photos of today's masterpiece made by me and Perry.
The great irony is I've just started reading a novel entitled "The Snowman" where the killer puts up a snowman facing the house of victims. Looks like I shall be having trouble sleeping til the thing melts...
When life gives you crippling amounts of snow, grab a dad and make a snow witch.
Here are some photos of today's masterpiece made by me and Perry.
The great irony is I've just started reading a novel entitled "The Snowman" where the killer puts up a snowman facing the house of victims. Looks like I shall be having trouble sleeping til the thing melts...
Friday, December 17, 2010
Balls to later. Political blog now.
Yes three blogs in one day. Machine that I am. Well more like the other two were more diary-esk entries and I'd rather leaving on something of an interesting one to make you laugh or think. Preferably both.
I'm getting fat by the way. Haven't been the gym for a good few weeks and eating rubbish. Work does that. It is suddenly starting to hit me that 5 days of work + 2 evenings of 2 individual languages + guitar lesson + salsa dancing + hopefully 3/4 evenings of gym + 1/2 nights of football will = A whole lotta stress. In fact I may have to create a hole in the space/time continuum to make this work. Or like in that Harry Potter where Hermione gets that time changing thing to fit in more classes.
It will be done. I'm a machine remember?
Anyways - Political Blog Activate!
So should rich prisoners - those who have, say, more then £40,000 in the bank at the time of incarceration and/or had a high five figure / six figure salary job before they were naughty people and got locked up - pay for their enforced lodgings?
It was an idea that was brought to my attention in the comments section of the Evening Standard last week. Sounds like a good idea to me.
According to this article, there are 85,000 prisoners in the UK today, costing around £41,000 a year each to keep locked up. It looks like 10% of the prison population can afford £50 a week for the duration of their incarceration, which raises £23 million, which can be put into the economy, or used to pay for prisoner skills training.
I've been thinking over the pros and cons:
Pros
I don't like money sitting in banks while there is injustice going on in the world and people need help. Especially if this money is sitting, waiting for rich criminals to go and collect. (Perhaps with interest whilst they've been in jail...So crime really does pay?)
Ken Clark, Secretary of State for Justice, has put forward another idea - making prisoners work 40 hours a week at minimum wage, with some of their profits going towards their victims. Work at recycling plants etc. This sounds interesting, although, as reports say, this should never effect companies outside. I'm not too sure about the giving of money to criminals either. I've applied to a hundred or two minimum wage jobs since I came out of uni (with no success as you know) and I'm definitely not alone. Plus, won't this encourage people to just live in prisons for profit long term?
Make them work for free? With all profits paying for their prison terms and the rest to victims? Maybe there should be a really crappy, poor quality prison section for those not working, literally boring hell, with nothing there. Then if you work, you can get a better quality cell, more essentials. Then if you work the most, you get prison life which is currently in effect today. Basically today's prisoners would only live as they do now if they worked/studied at least 40 hours a week, while the others would live in extremely cheap cells with cheap living conditions, at a lower cost to the tax payer.
That last idea sounds interesting to me but I fear I would fall against many human rights organisations for the first time. It is a harsh scenario. But hey, on the coach on the way back from the stag doo I watched Death Race, the movie where prisoners are forced to kill each other gruesomely for the public's entertainment on TV after the US economy has crashed and the prison population skyrockets. At least my idea isn't as evil as that one eh?
If prisoners today really are just sitting in their rooms all day watching cable, I think its definitely time we did something about it. ESPECIALLY since we are in a recession and everyone outside is feeling the squeeze. Surely it's madness to keep prison life as comfortable as it ever was while innocent people struggle to get jobs so they can pay for more comfortable prisons? Ideas need to be drawn up and prisoners need to be put to work. Work will be given to them, as if people outside jails would be so lucky..
Political Blog - Deactivate!
What think ye blog reader? Have an idea of your own?
I'm getting fat by the way. Haven't been the gym for a good few weeks and eating rubbish. Work does that. It is suddenly starting to hit me that 5 days of work + 2 evenings of 2 individual languages + guitar lesson + salsa dancing + hopefully 3/4 evenings of gym + 1/2 nights of football will = A whole lotta stress. In fact I may have to create a hole in the space/time continuum to make this work. Or like in that Harry Potter where Hermione gets that time changing thing to fit in more classes.
It will be done. I'm a machine remember?
Anyways - Political Blog Activate!
So should rich prisoners - those who have, say, more then £40,000 in the bank at the time of incarceration and/or had a high five figure / six figure salary job before they were naughty people and got locked up - pay for their enforced lodgings?
It was an idea that was brought to my attention in the comments section of the Evening Standard last week. Sounds like a good idea to me.
According to this article, there are 85,000 prisoners in the UK today, costing around £41,000 a year each to keep locked up. It looks like 10% of the prison population can afford £50 a week for the duration of their incarceration, which raises £23 million, which can be put into the economy, or used to pay for prisoner skills training.
I've been thinking over the pros and cons:
Pros
- Money. Costs ridiculous amounts keeping people inside prisons. Why should honest folk pay the full amount for a criminals food and lodgings, especially while some can afford to pay their own way? Should they lose the right to their own finances as well as their freedom? Haven't they done enough damage to society/ the economy?
- The money wouldn't (or shouldn't) be taken from all prisoners willy-nilly. The poorest prisoners, who stole when they had nothing in the first place, should be exempt. While it might seem unfair to the richer ones, surely lumping already broke prisoners with prison time bills will make them jump back into a life of crime even faster? Panels could be set up to discuss how much each prisoner should pay taking into account family, mental condition, chance of getting a job again outside and likelihood of re-offending, amongst other things. (However these panels probably would take a big chunk out of those millions raised to fund anyway.)
- It could do harm to families of victims. Certainly innocent relatives should not be fitted with a bill for the jail time of relatives.
- I'm no maths genius but high school maths gave me enough knowledge to be able to work out the following calculation - 85,000 X 41,000 = 3485,000,000. Now I think that article was slightly wrong with its figures because I like to think today we are not paying £3.5 Billion to keep prisoners locked up. An article I just found which is here, gives the same prisoner number, but says the cost per year is roughly 38,000, which still leaves the cost per year at 3230,000,000 or £3.2 Billion. £25 Million isn't really going to make much of a dent here..
I don't like money sitting in banks while there is injustice going on in the world and people need help. Especially if this money is sitting, waiting for rich criminals to go and collect. (Perhaps with interest whilst they've been in jail...So crime really does pay?)
Ken Clark, Secretary of State for Justice, has put forward another idea - making prisoners work 40 hours a week at minimum wage, with some of their profits going towards their victims. Work at recycling plants etc. This sounds interesting, although, as reports say, this should never effect companies outside. I'm not too sure about the giving of money to criminals either. I've applied to a hundred or two minimum wage jobs since I came out of uni (with no success as you know) and I'm definitely not alone. Plus, won't this encourage people to just live in prisons for profit long term?
Make them work for free? With all profits paying for their prison terms and the rest to victims? Maybe there should be a really crappy, poor quality prison section for those not working, literally boring hell, with nothing there. Then if you work, you can get a better quality cell, more essentials. Then if you work the most, you get prison life which is currently in effect today. Basically today's prisoners would only live as they do now if they worked/studied at least 40 hours a week, while the others would live in extremely cheap cells with cheap living conditions, at a lower cost to the tax payer.
That last idea sounds interesting to me but I fear I would fall against many human rights organisations for the first time. It is a harsh scenario. But hey, on the coach on the way back from the stag doo I watched Death Race, the movie where prisoners are forced to kill each other gruesomely for the public's entertainment on TV after the US economy has crashed and the prison population skyrockets. At least my idea isn't as evil as that one eh?
If prisoners today really are just sitting in their rooms all day watching cable, I think its definitely time we did something about it. ESPECIALLY since we are in a recession and everyone outside is feeling the squeeze. Surely it's madness to keep prison life as comfortable as it ever was while innocent people struggle to get jobs so they can pay for more comfortable prisons? Ideas need to be drawn up and prisoners need to be put to work. Work will be given to them, as if people outside jails would be so lucky..
Political Blog - Deactivate!
What think ye blog reader? Have an idea of your own?
New blog...NOW (again)
For those of you wondering aboot the title, see other blog below.
So yes, back home I am. Not much has happened since my return. Well:
1) My laptop died. Currently I'm on my mums. Well it died before I left but now I'm sure it is long term. Hardware problem unfortunately. After only appearing with a blank screen when switching on multiple times, I gave it a rough smack and it SPRANG INTO LIFE....only to tell me it was dead for good. Good ole dell, cheap as chips for a reason. I'm waiting for the never ending sales to hit so I can get another a bit more cheaply. Not sure how Dell sales work at Christmas however... will have to keep an eye out. Macs are £800+!! Never knew. I guess people buy them because they last for ages(?)..
2) Getting paid £100 a week which is pretty nice. After expenses it leaves me able to do a bit here and there. Hopefully the position I'm in now will be full time and paid in March I've been told... I'll keep you updated.
3) Had an interview today to be a parliamentary aide. Didn't do too well and apparently the MP in question had 270 applications for the position!! So I'm expecting a no. Ultra annoyingly I was asked questions on interesting topics like AV (alternate voting) and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict but knew nothing on them. Saying that, I work with the current vice chair of the Anti-AV campaign for all of the UK for our party. And STILL I gave a rubbish answer. Real dent to my confidence, I hear a lot about the con's to AV too. Still, I guess I need more practice. Hate needing more practice in anything. I'm getting too old. I should be good at everything by now.
Saying that, French and Spanish have disbanded for Xmas, I plan to work on them daily from this weekend. I'm boring like that. Also more guitar...
Anyways, I need sleep for work. I can assure you I will speak to thee before Christmas time. Stay tuned!
Cya Soon
P.S. I will do a political blog about a new policy I recently heard that I like the sound of - getting rich prisoners to pay for their time in prison.
So yes, back home I am. Not much has happened since my return. Well:
1) My laptop died. Currently I'm on my mums. Well it died before I left but now I'm sure it is long term. Hardware problem unfortunately. After only appearing with a blank screen when switching on multiple times, I gave it a rough smack and it SPRANG INTO LIFE....only to tell me it was dead for good. Good ole dell, cheap as chips for a reason. I'm waiting for the never ending sales to hit so I can get another a bit more cheaply. Not sure how Dell sales work at Christmas however... will have to keep an eye out. Macs are £800+!! Never knew. I guess people buy them because they last for ages(?)..
2) Getting paid £100 a week which is pretty nice. After expenses it leaves me able to do a bit here and there. Hopefully the position I'm in now will be full time and paid in March I've been told... I'll keep you updated.
3) Had an interview today to be a parliamentary aide. Didn't do too well and apparently the MP in question had 270 applications for the position!! So I'm expecting a no. Ultra annoyingly I was asked questions on interesting topics like AV (alternate voting) and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict but knew nothing on them. Saying that, I work with the current vice chair of the Anti-AV campaign for all of the UK for our party. And STILL I gave a rubbish answer. Real dent to my confidence, I hear a lot about the con's to AV too. Still, I guess I need more practice. Hate needing more practice in anything. I'm getting too old. I should be good at everything by now.
Saying that, French and Spanish have disbanded for Xmas, I plan to work on them daily from this weekend. I'm boring like that. Also more guitar...
Anyways, I need sleep for work. I can assure you I will speak to thee before Christmas time. Stay tuned!
Cya Soon
P.S. I will do a political blog about a new policy I recently heard that I like the sound of - getting rich prisoners to pay for their time in prison.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
New blog.....NOW
Hola.
Sorry it wasn't "tomorrow" per se. But I'm blogging now so we're cool aren't we homie? We are good are we not? Cut a brother some slack? That is what I am talking about! For shizzle my nizzle!
Ok I'll stop now, on with blog.
So where was I. I do believe I had put up some rather spiffing photographs of birdies since we last met. Since then there has been mucho happening. Most noticeably of course was my lovely friend Dan's stag weekend. Dan, Ben and Jason came round and we all had a curry and watched some hilarious family guy. But not before we went to Tescos at the end of my road and nearly got into some serious trouble. We walked along the freezing road and bought our supplies, but on our way out I accidentally bumped into a bloke who was pretty clearly shoplifting. At which point Dan said, a little too loudly, "he just shoplifted".
Scarily enough the guy seemed to briefly watch us to see what we would do, which made us fear for our lives all the way home. The ONE time I have friends down who I want to impress with my little suburb of London and we nearly get killed. Seriously.
Me, Ant, Ben, Dan and Jason all left early in the morning. Unfortunately this was also the very sad morning I was told by my mum that my nan had passed away in her sleep. My nan was someone special. We would share a cheeky wink when the all the room were laughing, we would chat in the kitchen of her house while she forced as much food as she could at us, she could always moan and laugh with us, she had one liners to crack up an entire room. She was the best nan I could have asked for. Her funerals on December 21st which will be hard. Fingers crossed shes up there keeping an eye on us. And still laughing.
Heading out that morning was hard but my nan would have wanted me to go. I damn well hope my grandson gets to go on his first stag doo when I head off too. The coach trip up was fun with the guys cracking jokes, sudoku and IPhone tv series'. We got to the place, had a few drinks and met all of Dan's other friends before heading out to the hotel. We got done up and went to the pub for some heavy drinking games which was lovely. The first of the stag challenges hit Dan as he was forced to drink baileys and beer. Unable to finish it all, the stags best man did the deed to the end like a champ.
Afterwards we headed out, grabbed a subway and found the strip bar the stag package included. Now my first experience of a strip club was so-so. It wasn't classy, but then it was almost a warehouse round a back alley someplace. The girls descended upon us from the start and bantered with us for a good 10 - 15 mins a time before asking if we wanted a dance. Most of the guys generally had a couple dances, some more then others. I was one of the few that abstained because 1) Didn't feel right what with nan passing, 2) It wasn't too hard to say no anyway. Something about fake chat in the hope of a dance is not appealing. One girl I told I had a girlfriend back home told me I was one of the few genuine guys in the place. Now granted I see what Ant told me in that they do try and make you feel 'special' as part of their job, still the way she said it with such a finality to the situation made me think she was genuine, she was cool.
Others found it a little harder to say no to the ladies. A few people I heard racked up 3 figure bills from the place. Me, Ben and Ant went wandering and briefly stumbled on a hardcore rock scream pub which was entertaining. Didn't stay for long on return, Jason was down by quite a sum and I offered to go back with him to stop him further hemorrhaging money. After briefly getting lost and having a hilarious trip back we arrived and slept.
Good thing about paintball being cancelled on Saturday was we could sleep in. We found a great sports bar in the afternoon and later returned there to watch the Newcastle game and gamble a bit. Lost £25 but it was fun. Good gambler and lucky bugger Ben won £130. He bought us drinks which was good compensation.
Later that evening we travelled to the Indian restaurant the package included - Rupali, home of the hottest curry in the world, literally. Official Guinness world record and everything. If you finish it you get it for free, get a certificate and have your photo on the restaurant website. The great Mike managed to do such a thing, albeit in a lot of pain, what a man he is.
After the restaurant things happened fast. We pretty much striped Dan half naked and duck taped him to a bench. Before throwing his shoes on a roof. I say 'we', us uni lads looked on while Dan's hardcore welsh mates did what they do best. Be hardcore welsh mates. We left for a club after and had a great night bar hopping. Dan, the man that he is, went back to the hotel and returned not too long later, something we all cheered too. Only other thing of mention is dancing for nearly half an hour with a street busker playing a drum. We were loving it. That and I nearly took out £4000 rather then £40 from a cash machine. Not so good.
The morning of our return, Ant annoyingly discovered he had booked a ticket for 1AM rather then the 1PM we had all booked for. He sprang into action and managed to bag a lucky national express coach for only £30 more. Good times. The coach back was funny, me Jason, Ben and Dan cracked jokes here and there. Me and Jason watched Dead Race on his Iphone. Ridiculous movie, but good for a coach ride. Towards the end we also looked up rather riskay world records including the longest ejaculation (roughly 18 ft) and the largest vagina (large enough to accommodate an American football)
Sadly it all ended and I'm back home. Dan survived, and is a stronger man for it. If my nan is watching she would have enjoyed every second. Dan's wedding is in February and promises to be a great one. I shall blog again in a separate article as I feel I have written a hell of a lot here...
Sorry it wasn't "tomorrow" per se. But I'm blogging now so we're cool aren't we homie? We are good are we not? Cut a brother some slack? That is what I am talking about! For shizzle my nizzle!
Ok I'll stop now, on with blog.
So where was I. I do believe I had put up some rather spiffing photographs of birdies since we last met. Since then there has been mucho happening. Most noticeably of course was my lovely friend Dan's stag weekend. Dan, Ben and Jason came round and we all had a curry and watched some hilarious family guy. But not before we went to Tescos at the end of my road and nearly got into some serious trouble. We walked along the freezing road and bought our supplies, but on our way out I accidentally bumped into a bloke who was pretty clearly shoplifting. At which point Dan said, a little too loudly, "he just shoplifted".
Scarily enough the guy seemed to briefly watch us to see what we would do, which made us fear for our lives all the way home. The ONE time I have friends down who I want to impress with my little suburb of London and we nearly get killed. Seriously.
Me, Ant, Ben, Dan and Jason all left early in the morning. Unfortunately this was also the very sad morning I was told by my mum that my nan had passed away in her sleep. My nan was someone special. We would share a cheeky wink when the all the room were laughing, we would chat in the kitchen of her house while she forced as much food as she could at us, she could always moan and laugh with us, she had one liners to crack up an entire room. She was the best nan I could have asked for. Her funerals on December 21st which will be hard. Fingers crossed shes up there keeping an eye on us. And still laughing.
Heading out that morning was hard but my nan would have wanted me to go. I damn well hope my grandson gets to go on his first stag doo when I head off too. The coach trip up was fun with the guys cracking jokes, sudoku and IPhone tv series'. We got to the place, had a few drinks and met all of Dan's other friends before heading out to the hotel. We got done up and went to the pub for some heavy drinking games which was lovely. The first of the stag challenges hit Dan as he was forced to drink baileys and beer. Unable to finish it all, the stags best man did the deed to the end like a champ.
Afterwards we headed out, grabbed a subway and found the strip bar the stag package included. Now my first experience of a strip club was so-so. It wasn't classy, but then it was almost a warehouse round a back alley someplace. The girls descended upon us from the start and bantered with us for a good 10 - 15 mins a time before asking if we wanted a dance. Most of the guys generally had a couple dances, some more then others. I was one of the few that abstained because 1) Didn't feel right what with nan passing, 2) It wasn't too hard to say no anyway. Something about fake chat in the hope of a dance is not appealing. One girl I told I had a girlfriend back home told me I was one of the few genuine guys in the place. Now granted I see what Ant told me in that they do try and make you feel 'special' as part of their job, still the way she said it with such a finality to the situation made me think she was genuine, she was cool.
Others found it a little harder to say no to the ladies. A few people I heard racked up 3 figure bills from the place. Me, Ben and Ant went wandering and briefly stumbled on a hardcore rock scream pub which was entertaining. Didn't stay for long on return, Jason was down by quite a sum and I offered to go back with him to stop him further hemorrhaging money. After briefly getting lost and having a hilarious trip back we arrived and slept.
Good thing about paintball being cancelled on Saturday was we could sleep in. We found a great sports bar in the afternoon and later returned there to watch the Newcastle game and gamble a bit. Lost £25 but it was fun. Good gambler and lucky bugger Ben won £130. He bought us drinks which was good compensation.
Later that evening we travelled to the Indian restaurant the package included - Rupali, home of the hottest curry in the world, literally. Official Guinness world record and everything. If you finish it you get it for free, get a certificate and have your photo on the restaurant website. The great Mike managed to do such a thing, albeit in a lot of pain, what a man he is.
After the restaurant things happened fast. We pretty much striped Dan half naked and duck taped him to a bench. Before throwing his shoes on a roof. I say 'we', us uni lads looked on while Dan's hardcore welsh mates did what they do best. Be hardcore welsh mates. We left for a club after and had a great night bar hopping. Dan, the man that he is, went back to the hotel and returned not too long later, something we all cheered too. Only other thing of mention is dancing for nearly half an hour with a street busker playing a drum. We were loving it. That and I nearly took out £4000 rather then £40 from a cash machine. Not so good.
The morning of our return, Ant annoyingly discovered he had booked a ticket for 1AM rather then the 1PM we had all booked for. He sprang into action and managed to bag a lucky national express coach for only £30 more. Good times. The coach back was funny, me Jason, Ben and Dan cracked jokes here and there. Me and Jason watched Dead Race on his Iphone. Ridiculous movie, but good for a coach ride. Towards the end we also looked up rather riskay world records including the longest ejaculation (roughly 18 ft) and the largest vagina (large enough to accommodate an American football)
Sadly it all ended and I'm back home. Dan survived, and is a stronger man for it. If my nan is watching she would have enjoyed every second. Dan's wedding is in February and promises to be a great one. I shall blog again in a separate article as I feel I have written a hell of a lot here...
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Upcoming posts immanent
Sorry for the lack of posting. Tomorrow I will recount the next few days I hope! Involving the stag weekend, some family stuff and upcoming stuffs. (Also have I mentioned I'm getting paid around £100 a week now?)
Watching Matrix Reloaded before I head to sleep. The acting is so much worse then I remember. But then I did watch Patrick Stewart play a modern version of Macbeth on BBC Iplayer yesterday. Genius man.
Til tomorrow!
Watching Matrix Reloaded before I head to sleep. The acting is so much worse then I remember. But then I did watch Patrick Stewart play a modern version of Macbeth on BBC Iplayer yesterday. Genius man.
Til tomorrow!
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Winter in London
Those of us in the UK will know it has gotten bloody cold. For those of you not in the UK, it is bloody cold.
I've created an album on facebook full of Winter photos, I'll pick my personal top ones so far here, look forward to taking some more:
I've created an album on facebook full of Winter photos, I'll pick my personal top ones so far here, look forward to taking some more:
EDIT: Should probably say that I took these photos! Stupidly forgot to mention. First two were taken at Colliers Wood park and the following were at Wimbledon Park lake.
Out of the blocks
Today I came off the benefits. Went to the job centre as per usual and informed the lady I see that I would like to be taken off of the care of the state. She responded with usual indifference. She gave me a nice "good luck with it" and a lovely smile at the end but I shall not miss her in the slightest I fear. She was snappy.
When I first went there I was told not to lay around at home watching Jeremy Kyle. Yes I'm sure the MA on my CV just screams lazy benefits scammer. Gah. She was good at heart.
I can afford to keep up with the masters loan now as I'm working an extra day at the internship handling their social networking side. I get paid £65 for the day to blog, facebook and twitter. Joy! Still I'm on the lookout for other things, I went to the standard job agency near me on Thursday. I went on the first big day of snow which impressed the lady working my case no end.
While at the agency I had to do MS Word and Excel tests and a small spelling test on the sheet. I was told about (and prepared for) the Microsoft tests and got decent above average scores for them (28/30 for Word and 24/30 for Excel), but the spelling test was a bugger, got 13/20 and 15/20. I dislike spelling. Thank God for computer spell checkers. Now because of the bad spelling test, I can't be put forward for admin work at the Ministry of Health. Frustration!! GCSE's, A-Levels, three years on a BA degree, slaving over a hot MA degree and Finally!! - I can't get into my chosen field because I spelt Prejudice "PreDjudice" in a job agency. I'll never make that mistake again I tell ya.
Still its never that set in stone. This Christmas I'm going to be working damn hard on getting up to date with Spanish and French, two things that keep my hopes alive that someday I will be hard at work in Europe, or somewhere else in the world. Just writing about it makes me want to work on languages, must write more when my motivation is low.
I'm quite a left wing guy but one policy has occurred to me and it is quite the righty. Why, depending on how much a person has taken in job benefit, do we not have those who have taken a certain amount pay a portion back when they start earning over a certain amount? I've been on benefits for about 4 months, £51 a week (51x16) = £816. Now granted that's quite a bit (more then I thought before I started making that calculation), but after I start earning 20k a year, I should be fine paying back £5 - 10 a week for a while. Surely if we're not paying back anything now, an even smaller figure would be acceptable. Granted its another loan, just like tuition fees and we all hate tuition fees. Tricky one.
One things for sure, I'm not going to miss having to prove myself to the job centre every week by staying up late night job hunting.
"How many hours do you volunteer?"
"Well I do 3 days at the moment..."
"No how many HO-urs..."
When I first went there I was told not to lay around at home watching Jeremy Kyle. Yes I'm sure the MA on my CV just screams lazy benefits scammer. Gah. She was good at heart.
I can afford to keep up with the masters loan now as I'm working an extra day at the internship handling their social networking side. I get paid £65 for the day to blog, facebook and twitter. Joy! Still I'm on the lookout for other things, I went to the standard job agency near me on Thursday. I went on the first big day of snow which impressed the lady working my case no end.
While at the agency I had to do MS Word and Excel tests and a small spelling test on the sheet. I was told about (and prepared for) the Microsoft tests and got decent above average scores for them (28/30 for Word and 24/30 for Excel), but the spelling test was a bugger, got 13/20 and 15/20. I dislike spelling. Thank God for computer spell checkers. Now because of the bad spelling test, I can't be put forward for admin work at the Ministry of Health. Frustration!! GCSE's, A-Levels, three years on a BA degree, slaving over a hot MA degree and Finally!! - I can't get into my chosen field because I spelt Prejudice "PreDjudice" in a job agency. I'll never make that mistake again I tell ya.
Still its never that set in stone. This Christmas I'm going to be working damn hard on getting up to date with Spanish and French, two things that keep my hopes alive that someday I will be hard at work in Europe, or somewhere else in the world. Just writing about it makes me want to work on languages, must write more when my motivation is low.
I'm quite a left wing guy but one policy has occurred to me and it is quite the righty. Why, depending on how much a person has taken in job benefit, do we not have those who have taken a certain amount pay a portion back when they start earning over a certain amount? I've been on benefits for about 4 months, £51 a week (51x16) = £816. Now granted that's quite a bit (more then I thought before I started making that calculation), but after I start earning 20k a year, I should be fine paying back £5 - 10 a week for a while. Surely if we're not paying back anything now, an even smaller figure would be acceptable. Granted its another loan, just like tuition fees and we all hate tuition fees. Tricky one.
One things for sure, I'm not going to miss having to prove myself to the job centre every week by staying up late night job hunting.
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